October 8, 2011 - Boy Scout rides & Flat Tire
My EAA Chapter has been trying to give airplane rides to a local Boy Scout troop for some time now. Twice we have had to cancel due to weather. But third time was the charm and we had good weather. We were doing the rides at Bay Bridge airport. I was a Boy Scout back in the day and wanted to help them out. I can still remember seeing the Aviation Merit Badge patch and thinking it was extremely cool.
On my my third and final ride I greased it on -- if I do say so myself -- but as I was rolling out, I started hearing flap-flap-flap-flap-flap on the right side. I knew right away that I had a flat tire. The RV kept tracking straight but I pulled off the runway into the grass as soon as I could because I knew Bruce R. in Mugsy was right behind me on final.
I spent the next five hours dealing with the flat tire: getting the plane off the grass and back to the ramp, jacking the plane up, taking off the wheel, changing the tube, and putting on the wheel back on. The reason for the flat was a pinhole in the side of the tube. What caused it I don't know. I put new tubes in about a year ago and they were the best quality tubes I could get. Oh well, the flat tire could have happened at a time and place a lot worse than when and where it did.
